By John Durkee
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-834822.mp3
Tulsa, Oklahoma – The President of the University of Tulsa welcomes the "Cradle to Prison" pipeline summit to the Reynolds Center. The day-long conference focused on the feeling of hopelessness as generation-after-generation take the express-lane to prison. The keynote speaker was the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman.
Edelman says the problem has the potential to cripple the United States in economic development because entire segments of the population are being left behind.
Oklahoma spends one-and-a-half times more putting a person in prison than it spends per-capita on a student in the public schools.
Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor says while some programs like the Educare program, are already paying dividends, we must do more.
The summit was designed to raise awareness of the "Cradle to Prison" pipeline crisis and to develop actions to dismantle the pipeline. Edelman says unless we get a handle on the problem--- and soon---we are undermining our future.
The summit was sponsored by U-S Cellular, The University of Tulsa, The Childcare Resource Center of Tulsa and the Mayor's office.